AB SCIEX
is a global leader in mass
spectrometry products.
The company's global leadership and world-class
service & support in the mass spectrometry
industry have made it a trusted partner to
thousands of the scientists and lab analysts
worldwide who are focused on basic research,
drug discovery & development, food &
environmental testing, forensics and clinical
research.
Their broad portfolio of scientific analytical tools
include innovative instrument systems, intuitive
software and pre-packaged methods -- all of
which are part of workflows that reduce
complexity and accelerate results. These tools
apply mass spectrometry technologies to enable
scientists to conduct quantitative and qualitative
analysis across a wide range of applications.
LC/MS/MS quantitative methods for
drugs of abuse screening
Conventional methods for drugs of abuse analysis
for forensic technology require multiple assays
and repeated analysis on individual samples,
which can be both expensive and timeconsuming. By comparison, LC tandem mass
spectrometric analysis (LC/MS/MS) for forensic
toxicology provides an easy and rapid technique
that enables simultaneous multi-drug quantitation
and identification from various sample matrices
such as saliva, urine, or serum samples. In
addition, the sensitivity of LC/MS/MS quantitative
methods is capable of detecting and quantifying
drugs of abuse for forensic toxicology at levels
significantly lower than the current cut-off levels.
The AB SCIEX 3200 QTRAP
LC/MS/MS
System,
for
analysing hundreds of drugs
in a single analysis
For more information on
FluidX products, contact
[email protected]
Analysis across drug classes
LC/MS/MS is a very valuable tool in forensic
toxicology screening. By using LC/MS/MS
analysis, sample preparation can be
simplified, and run times can be reduced,
resulting in increased throughput and faster
turnaround. Sample preparation is generic,
allowing for a wide variety of compound
classes to be screened using a single
procedure for sample preparation and
chromatographic analysis.
The most significant advantage of using
simple, relatively-generic sample preparation
for forensic toxicology is that it allows for drug
analysis across multiple compound classes in
a single method.
Multi-target screening (MTS) and general
unknown screening (GUS) are both useful
workflows in forensic toxicology. Typically,
there is a relatively small subset of substances
that are heavily-used and abused, making a
targeted approach the most useful because
the high proficiency in detecting drugs at low
concentrations and the ease of data
processing and interpretation. If a drug has
not been characterized as a frequently-used
or abused substance, it will be omitted from
the target compound list and not detected.
General unknown screening is, therefore, a
complementary screening technique for
detecting and identifying unexpected drugs,
drug analogs, and drug metabolites during
forensic toxicology testing.